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In a SHTF situation, there will be NO more food available at the stores. It will NOT be a temporary thing. If your neighbors have not prepared, giving them a little food ONCE, is not going to satisfy them. If they know that you have food, they will be back. If you tell them "No more food", they will not be grateful for the previous food that you have given them, rules of survival will kick in, and they will kill you for your food. When the food is no longer available at the stores, in urban areas, it will probably go something like this:
1)At first, neighbors will knock at your door, politely asking for food. They will give a sad story about their kids being hungry.
2) As days go on, neighbors will now pound on your door, yelling, demanding food, possibly breaking windows.
3) Then, neighbors will break into your house to steal your food, will kill you if necessary.
4) As time progresses, there will be organized street gangs, going door to door, breaking into houses taking "WHATEVER" they want, not only food.
This will be total collapse of society at this point, over 90% of people will either starve to death, or die from violence.
How do you sleep at night with this non-sense going on in your mind? Watch too many Purge movies?
If it was a real SHTF you likely wouldn't even open the door.
Family comes first. If everyone doesn't feel that way, then shame on them, and my pity goes out to their children and spouse.
All of this nonsense about "I'll share with my friends and neighbors" is self-indulgent trash talk to make people feel good about themselves, and to throw guilt on those who wouldn't. If you're in a SHTF situation where food and supplies can't be replaced, you have no business handing supplies over to others when you have a family to take care of.
If it is truly SHTF, all polite societal rules and laws dissolve. There will likely be no cops, emergency services or any outside assistance. Even drinking water might be scarce. If you have a garden, you'll have to shoot people to protect it.
You'd better be armed and ready to protect your food stock from those once-friendly neighbors who will kill you and your children to get at it. It might not even be people you know. It'll be strangers, looters, wanderers who are hungry enough.
Despite our insistence that we'd remain civilized ourselves, and that we'd feed whomever came to our door, it is fairy tale stuff. Even if you're single, living alone and have no family, your survival instinct will kick in. You're not going to let anyone take what little you have. And you're certainly not going to willingly hand it over to friend or foe.
And again... we're taking about SHTF, not a temporary set back where the stores will reopen in a week or two.
A good SHTF movie from the History channel is After Armageddon. It's on dvd.
All you said above is correct, but altruism and compassion is a part of a normal human being.
And even with the firm conviction of just the need to survive and help your own family one could be surprised by the unexpected willingness to help others as some historical events show
There must be some biology/natural conditioning/the survival basis behind this: as even in dire conditions the people were able to survive by sharing their meager resources more so then being a loner selfishly preserving their stash.
There is some immaterial quality to survival as species
It is a controversial way of thinking, but like I said - the history lessons prove this phenomenon exists
Last edited by L00k4ward; 05-03-2022 at 07:58 AM..
All you said above is correct, but altruism and compassion is a part of a normal human being.
And even with the firm conviction of just the need to survive and help your own family one could be surprised by the unexpected willingness to help others as some historical events show
There must be some biology/natural conditioning/the survival basis behind this: as even in dire conditions the people were able to survive by sharing their meager resources more so then being a loner selfishly preserving their stash.
There is some immaterial quality to survival as species
It is a controversial way of thinking, but like I said - the history lessons prove this phenomenon exists
Sure. I agree. There will be sporadic acts of kindness. Also, small rural communities will probably come together to ..."circle the wagons", so to speak. They'll share what they have and fight to protect their stocks from marauders. Yes, of course this will happen. I think city dwellers will fare worse than country folks, but that's just my opinion, and not a blanket statement of all city dwellers.
Mostly, I think it'll be total chaos as the SHTF situation rages onward with no end in sight... when the supplies dwindle, and the realization sets in that things will never return to normal. Compassion will die when Hope dies out... and personal survival becomes the only priority.
But then the question becomes... do I really want to live in that world? I personally do not. Is there a point to life when all we care about is ourselves? No, I don't believe so.
It's frightening to ponder these things. If we're going to be honest, it reveals things about us that maybe we'd rather not know...... forces us to think about situations that really are quite possible.
Who remembers that Twilight Zone episode about the bomb shelter? It gives me chills even to this day.
When SHTF, if women and children knock on your door asking for food, will you give some to them?
Give them gift certificates to McDonalds. Not the greatest food on earth, but as my mother used to say, it will keep body and soul together.
And they don't have enough cash values to sell. And they can't be used for alcohol since McDs has none.
And if the beggars were looking for something they could turn into money (for drugs?) or alcohol, they WON'T be back. For the most part, only the genuinely needy might return for more.
I share and play well with others. I always presume there's an angel at my door and it's a test for both of us. If they pass, then yes . Mind you... I have dogs (Catahoula's) that run loose, so that's the first test, 400' to the house. Cattle gate is manual and I have drive way alarms. I'm surrounded by cattle-dairy-horses and I know my neighbors... well at least I know their trucks. Some of them I haven't seen in a while and we're all gettin' long-in-the-tooth. I might not recognize them at first glance. My home can not be seen from the road. Plenty of farms out my way they will pass before my property.
But yes... if they pass the test, I'll share what I can/have and send them on their way.
I fully well realize that you have to be somewhat prepared to deal with the unexpected or the once in a century, natural disaster. But I find it somewhat unthinkable that this is being seriously discussed, with reference to the USA. For 150 years, we've been in good shape, and all of a sudden, within the last couple of years, we have survivability issues?????
Mostly, I think it'll be total chaos as the SHTF situation rages onward with no end in sight... when the supplies dwindle, and the realization sets in that things will never return to normal. Compassion will die when Hope dies out... and personal survival becomes the only priority.
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Think it would all revert back to natural born leaders with people managing skills as well as survival knowledge skills.
They are not necessary have to have physical strength or guns and ammo: it could be older folks, women or even well adjusted young people.
No one would survive alone for long - with the few exceptions of course.
And like you said - would you like to live this way? It depends on the individual..
People would need different set of skills for an imminent survival- a very few of us have them all.
The group and the structure would ensure better chances for the future
At one point I lived in an area where I planned to haul drinking water out to the highway to have a watering station for the refugees. That's not something that would work where I live now.
I've got my sympathy for the displaced and if I ever got displaced, I hope there would be some kindness from strangers. But no, it would be unsafe to allow hungry strangers to come knocking on your door to learn that your house was a source of food.
Last edited by oregonwoodsmoke; 05-03-2022 at 11:02 AM..
The hand writing has been on the wall for some time. There are going to be shortages. I won't have much compassion for people who have ignored or discounted that fact.
Anyone who has ignored the signs and warnings and haven't stocked up is the proverbial ant who played all summer while the grasshopper worked to set food aside for the winter.
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